Survivors
by 4everGale
Summary: Gale and his family come back to district twelve with Katniss after the war. Katniss realizes he loves him but something unexpected happens that might take him away from her. would she be able to keep him? or would she be force to continue life without his hunting partner and best friend? I don't own the Hunger Games or the Characters.


I guess I sleep because the next thing I know, it's morning and I wake to find myself on the sofa and to a noise coming from my kitchen. I don't know whether to stay in the house or run away from the noise. I decide I want to find out what or who is making the noise and I walk to the kitchen just to find Hazelle Hawthorne making breakfast.

"Hazelle?" that it's all I manage to say

"Katniss, good, you are awake. Sit down and have some breakfast" she tells me and I quickly obey because I'm confuse of the reason of why she is here. I eat all my breakfast while she sits at the table with me in complete silence. She must be here to take care of me, that's the only explanation I can come up with at the moment.

"Where is Gale?" I ask her while she is cleaning the dishes.

"He is working. He was here this morning, he was the one to take you to the sofa when we found you sleeping on the chair. He said he will come back tonight to see you and bring you dinner"

"Where does he work?"

"Cleaning up the district. Checking houses for bodies and burying the death. When the district is clean, they're planning on building new houses"

"Where are you living?" I ask because I just remember that their house was destroy

"A few houses down from here, they assign victor houses to those who wanted to come back to the districts"

Gale does come back at night but we don't talk. Whatever curiosity I had that morning is gone. He just seat with me. Watch me eat and looks at me. We were never good with words and also I'm gone, my body is here but my mine is not. I don't know really where it is really. But Gale comes by every night to seat with me. Sometimes he tells me about the work he is doing, all the changes they are planning on doing in the district. He tells me when he goes hunting and that I should go with him because the woods it gets too lonely without me. Hazelle also comes every morning to make me breakfast and clean the house. She bathes me and Posy combs my hair. They take care of me every day. They don't ask me anything or expect me to say anything, they are just here hoping that the old Katniss will come back. One Sunday night, after spending the whole day with me, Gale is running his fingers through my hair as my head seats on his lap, I hear him say "Come back to me Katniss, just come back to me" I'm sure he thought I was asleep but I wasn't. I want to come back too. I hate being this weak. I hated my mother for leaving after my dad died and now I'm just like her. I hate it.

I'm pacing the floor trying to fight this anxiety attack that wants to take over my body. It has been four days since I've seen Gale or his family. Four days ago I woke up to the smell of fresh bake bread lingering throughout my house. For a moment I thought I was having a dream, but as I made my way to the kitchen I knew this was real. It became even more real the moment I saw Peeta making tea.

"You're back" I said to my surprise.

"I came home last night" he says "Dr. Aurelius didn't want to let me go until then"

"Where is Hazelle"

"I don't know. Actually I didn't know she was here, in the district" He sounds surprise. After a moment he adds "is Gale here too?"

"Yes, they have been coming every day, that's why I'm surprise she is not here"

"I'm sure she and Gale will be here later"

But they don't come. Gale didn't come that night or Hazelle the next morning. Instead, Greasy Sea comes every morning to make me breakfast and Peeta brings me dinner. When I ask Greasy Sea about Hazelle all she says is that one of her little ones is sick which is keeping her busy and unable to come. She doesn't tell me which little one is sick though, she just says she thinks is one of the boys. But that still doesn't explain why Gale hasn't come to see me. I'm sure he is worry sick about his brother but he would still find time to come see me. I know he has time because it has been pouring for the last three days making the work in the district's renovation impossible. There has been moments when I'm sure they're gone. They got tire of me and left, but no, Gale wouldn't leave. Especially since I gave him a sign that I was coming back.

The last night I saw Gale, he took me to my room believing I was asleep but I wasn't. He placed me in my bed and gave me a gentle kiss on my forehead and as he was walking away, I graved his hand and with a soft voice I said "don't leave me" he gave me a small smile and said "never" He laid next to me, I buried my face on his chest and let the sound of his heart beat soothe me to sleep.

That was four nights away and my anxiety has been raising every since. Last night, I waited up for him to come but as the hours went by, I understood that he wasn't coming. Something happened to Gale and his family. That's the only explanation. The capitol has found the way to take him away from me. They captured him, tortured him and killed him. I need to find out what happen to him. But how? I can't seem to leave this house. I have tried to leave the house to find out the truth but every time I turned the doorknob fear of what I might find take over me.

That is why I'm here walking back and for in this hallway, begging Peeta, Haymitch, anyone to tell me something. Greasy Sae is the one who takes peaty on me and says

"Maybe we should tell her the truth"

Peeta and Haymitch give her a killing look, clearly letting her know that she has made a mistake by saying this but it's too late, I know there is something else to the story.

"Tell me Sae, what happen to Gale? What did the Capital do to him?" I grab her by the shoulder and don't give her a chance to scape without her telling me everything first.

"I'll let you know but you need to calm down first. Sit down and I'll tell you everything"

What she tells me next I'm not prepare to hear. The Capital did nothing to Gale. He and other men were cleaning a house, making sure there were no bodies inside before destroying it completely. One of the walls cave in entrapping Gale underneath. He is alive but in pretty bad conditions.

Greasy Sae still talking but I'm not listening anymore. I run towards the door and before I know I'm out of the house in the pouring rain. I don't know where to go. Hazelle never told me which house they were assign and all the houses seems to be occupied.

Peeta and Haymitch are out holding up an umbrella and leading me towards the house I hope Gale and his family live.

I enter the house which seems to be full of people but I don't acknowledge them, all I want is to see gale. Peeta takes me to the room that belongs to Gale and my heart skips a beat.

I see Gale laying in his bed, eyes close and bruises everywhere. The moment my hands touches his face, I can tell his burning with fever. I touch his hands and I notice even his fingers are swollen. I wander if he can feel my hands touching his.

"Gale, can you hear me? It's me, Katniss"

"He hasn't been responding to anything since yesterday" Hazelle tells me

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask her, tears running down my face

"I wanted to Katniss, especially since he kept saying your name, but Peeta and Haymitch told me it wouldn't be good for you"

I can't believe Peeta and Haymitch kept something so important from me. They both know how much Gale means to me. I needed to know, they should've told me the moment it happen. I don't need protection, certainly not their protection.

I can't think of what to do, for the first time in life I'm can't come up with a plan to help Gale. I can't consentrate. It's all the noise from the house, people coming in and out of this room. Why do they walk around this house like they live here? Maybe they're spies from the Capitol, or maybe I'm just being paranoid.

"Who are these people? Why do they walk so freely in the house?" I ask Hazelle

"They live here. There were only a few livable houses in the district and they needed people to come. We have to share the house with other families just until we build…" she stops short and notice the tears running down her cheeks. She can finish the sentence because it is Gale the one who wants to build her a new house. This was his plan and it hurts her to know that he might not be able finish the plan. I won't let that happen I need to find a way to help him.

I spend the whole morning seating next to Gale's bed, holding his swollen hands and just praying he makes it. At some point Peeta brings a large towel and place it on my shoulder but I don't pay attention to him. I'm still mad at him for keeping this from me and I'm also thinking of a way to help Gale. If only my mother and Prim were here. They would know what to do. They were the healers.

Suddenly, I remember that my mother left a pantry full of medicinal herbs in the house. I notice the rain has stop and I see this as my chance to do something.

I walk towards Hazelle and say

"We have to move Gale to my house, it's the only way I can help him"

She seems unsure about my idea. Peeta and Haymitch don't seem to agree either because it may be dangerous to move him. They keep talking about his body being to hurt and it might not be a good idea to move him. We are wasting time, the rain can come back at any minute

"Look, if he had internal bleeding, he wouldn't still be alive. The fever is keeping him week and the infection on that cut on his head is what causing the infection. I'm sure I can find something to stop both of those" I turn to Hazelle this time to plead "let me take him Hazelle, I can help him there, I know I can. He will be more comfortable there. You and the kids can come too"

Hazelle agree and Peeta and others take Gale to my house and in no time have him settle in one of the rooms downstairs. I run to the kitchen to find that pantry. My mother has label every plant and their purpose. I smash the herbs and some oil label for infection into a paste while Sae turns the herbs for the fever into tea.

After I place the pasty stuff in Gale's infected cut, Hazelle and I manage to give him all the tea although it wasn't the easiest task since Gale is death to the world. We repeat this process throughout the day and by nighttime Gale's body is full of sweet in sign that his fever is trying to break but he still awfully hot.

I'm putting wet towels on Gale's body to help keep it cool, and then I notice a scar on his chest and without thinking I ask Hazelle when he got this scar.

"When he was capture by the peacekeepers in the Capital during the war" suddenly, I remember Gale screaming for me to shoot him but I couldn't.

I convince Hazelle to go and try to sleep. I spend the night taking care of him. Giving him water, tea and trying to keep him cool. I take in his body, all cover in scars. The ones he got in the woods during happier times, but he also has angry ones from horrible moments. The one from that horrible night he got whip, the one from the dagger the night he risk his life to rescue Peeta, the one on his neck from the bite of that horrible mutt, and now the one from the bullet one on his chest. Gale, only 19 years old and cover in scars. We both are. We both have gone through too much, seem too much but we are both survivors. Gale has survive every one of those woods and he is going to survive this one. He has to because I just can imagine a world where my heart is beating and Gale's is not. All I see is darkness. Why does it have to take me to see him hurting to realize all he means to me, all the love that I have for him, how much I will miss him if he ever leaves? I buried my face in his swollen hands and just plead "don't leave me, come back to me Gale"

By morning I can see Gale's fever has broken since his body's temperature feels normal. I go to the small bathroom to wash my face and when I come back I see Gale's eyes open and him trying to get out of bed but not having much luck. Without thinking about it twice I throw myself to him and start kissing him and saying between kisses "you're back, I knew you'll come back to me". My excitement is so big that I fail to notice that Hazelle and Peeta have enter the room and are standing in the doorway.

I don't think Hazelle notice me kissing her son and if she did she does not care, all she can see is that Gale is conscious. I do know that Peeta saw me kissing Gale because I can see it in his ghost stare and he is clearly avoiding my eyes. I don't care, at the moment all I care about is making Gale better. I will deal with Peeta's wounds later.

Hazelle wants me to go to sleep and I obey to avoid the uncomfortable situation between Peeta and me, but I take care of Gale's wound before I go.

I sleep more than I wanted to because I wake up just in time to see the sun set. I take a quick shower and hurry downstairs eager to see Gael but when I get to his room I see he is sleeping. Hazelle brings me a bowl of stew and I that is when I realize how empty my stomach is. She tells me Gale had a much better day. He was able to eat a little bit and drink water. The fever came back only once today but with the tea, it quickly went away. He does look better.

I eat all my stew and spend the night next to Gale.

In fact I spend every night with him, even after he gets better I find myself crawling back into his bed and sleeping wrap in his arms. It took him a couple of weeks to get better and regain his strength but he does and before we know it, he goes back to work.

I decide to forget that Haymitch and Peeta keep Gale's illness hidden from me and our friendship continues like always. One day, as Peeta and I are having a conversation, he asks me

"How are you doing with the nightmares?"

"Not bad, they're not as bad as they used to be" I tell him, which is true. What I don't tell him it's that I had been spending every night with Gale and in his arms the nightmares just don't appear. I can't help to feel a little guilty because I know he spends his nights alone, without someone to scare his nightmares away. After a while, he breaks the silence and says

"You love him, real or not real?" I wasn't expecting that but I had no choice, I have to tell the truth

"Real" I said with an apologetic look

"You never have to be sorry or sad for that Katniss, all I want is for you to be happy. Besides, I always knew you love him, even if you didn't know it yourself"

Gale's and I relationship becomes more than friendship and our trips to the woods become more than just hunting trips. We go there for the need to be alone, just the two of us.

I know that this was going to happen. It happened on a Sunday, weeks after Gale had recovered. We decided to go hunting because the trains had not been able to deliver any food to the district due to the rain. We were not having any luck despite that it was the middle of spring where the animals normally come out. Maybe the all rain scared them away. All of the sudden, we see a deer and without saying a word we both release an arrow killing the deer before he could detect our presence. In that moment, I threw my arms around Gale, my lips found his and those three words came out of my lips before I could stop them

"I love you" I said the moment my lips left his

"Oh Katniss I love you more" was his response.

That is how I told my hunter, he is the one I need. Gale and I were always meant to be together. I can feel it in the kisses that bring back life into my body, I can see it in those stormy grey eyes that now shine all the time. What I needed was Gale's never ending fire to keep me warm, I needed the assurance that things will be fine, I needed the protection of his strong arms. He may not be good with words, but its okay because what I need its actions that will show me that things will get better.

Peeta and I are victors, but Gale and I are survivors and that is how I know that Peeta and I would've never worked. He reminds me of the Hunger Games and the arena too much while Gale reminds me of the woods, of happy moments. Things with Peeta were never real, always pretending but with Gale everything comes so natural. Every kiss, every hug, every touch and every moment with Gale feels so normal, like it is meant to be. My love story with Peeta was something the Capitol made up while my love for Gale grew out friendship, out of talks in the woods of things that we would only tell each other.


End file.
